Milwaukee Bucks Arena Becomes First Bird-Friendly Pro Sports Arena in the World

The new Milwaukee Bucks arena, Fiserv Forum, is the first pro sports arena in the world to be deemed bird-friendly. The recognition comes from the building’s design, which makes it less likely that a bird will be killed by flying into the large windows of the arena.

The building’s bird-friendly features are essential for the livelihood of both the local and distant bird population, as the Fiserv Forum building stands in the middle of a migration path, Buck President, Peter Feigin, tells journal sentinel.

“The Bucks stepped up for birds in a way that no sports franchise ever has,” Bryan Lenz of the American Bird Conservancy tells the outlet.

According to the outlet, Lenz was responsible for convincing the Bucks and their arena designer, Populous, to include the bird-friendly design into the building plans. At the time, Lenz was the director of Bird City Wisconsin.

“It was one of the hundred meetings that I took--he was very persistent--and it lasted five minutes and I was sold,” Feigin tells the outlet. “He had a very impactful presentation.”

Lenz tells journal sentinel that birds often travel through Milwaukee when migrating along the Great Lakes and that a large, glass arena could be extremely hazardous, especially for sleeping birds. “They can sleep when they fly, which is why when they land in the forest of glass they’re going to get killed,” Lenz tells journal sentinel.

One of the building’s most outstanding bird-friendly features is the use of fritting, which is a thin ceramic coating on glass. The material makes the glass more visible to birds so they are less likely to fly into it.

Thanks to the efforts of everyone involved, the building received a “bird collision deterrence credit” on top of their green building certification from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program (LEED).